Doing It In Public
For the past 13 years I’ve been doing my Zen practice in a very public way. In at least one of my books I likened what I do to being a porn actor, in the sense that I am doing what is usually an extremely personal and private thing in front of the public as […]
Nothing is Ever Hidden
The audiobook of Don’t Be a Jerk is available now! I read it myself and even wrote a theme song. How can you beat that? You can’t. So order yours today. Also, the other day I ordered a copy of Embracing Mind: The Zen Talks of Kobun Chino Otogawa edited by Judy Cosgrove and Shinbo […]
Zen and Obsessions
A friend of mine’s wife is going through chemo therapy. He told me, “I’m mostly stressed: cancer stress, work stress, news stress, etc. This is why I can’t do zazen — sitting still means obsessing about all the things I can’t deal with. Or focusing on all the stuff I need to do.” That was […]
Innocent By-Standers and Collective Karma
In the previous segment of this blog I brought up the idea of collective karma. This may be the biggest stumbling block to understanding the Buddhist theory of karma — that karma is not something that happens just to individuals. Karma is not the idea that I do something bad and later on something bad happens […]
Election Night
In the 36 or so hours since I put up that story about my nephew, I’ve noticed a few people have canceled their regular PayPal donations to me. I’ve also seen some new donations come in. I know that one of the subscribers I lost was because he was unhappy with what my nephew does for a […]
